1. Tenth Symposium and Exhibition on Machine Readable Travel Documents
(MRTDs) and Border Security
October 7-9, 2014
Sophie Taylor
Programme Lead – Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
De La Rue, Solutions
Civil Registration and Vital Statistics:
Common Terminology and Stakeholder Alignment
2. Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
United Nations define CRVS as:
“the continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal
recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events
(live births, deaths, foetal deaths, marriages and divorces)...
and as provided through decree of regulation, in accordance with the
legal requirement in each country”1
1 . United Nations (UN). Principles and recommendations for a vital statistics system, Revision 2. UN, 2001.
3. Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
United Nations define CRVS as:
“the continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal
recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events
(live births, deaths, foetal deaths, marriages and divorces)...
and as provided through decree of regulation, in accordance with the
legal requirement in each country”1
1 . United Nations (UN). Principles and recommendations for a vital statistics system, Revision 2. UN, 2001.
5. Globally, the births of nearly 230 million children under age
five have never been recorded, they do not officially exist.
In 2012 alone, 57 million infants – four out of every ten
babies delivered worldwide that year – were not
registered with civil authorities.
The Reality Today ....
6. Population and global GDP continues to grow
Travel and border control / crossings will continue to increase
Who will be crossing your border?
And Tomorrow....
9. The Challenges: CRVS Stakeholders
Passport
Immigration &
Border Control
Health
Education
State Benefits
Driving Licence &
Vehicle Registration
Land Registry
International
Civil Registry / Health Data
Birth, Death, Marriage
CRVS
architecture
10. The Challenges: Lack of Best Practice
Which biometric capture is suitable for children?
What is needed to verify a parent?
Inconsistent / variable sources and an undermining of data integrity
11. The Challenges: Different Terminology
Births, Deaths, MarriagesCRVS?Vital Events Registration?Evidence of Identity?
16. There is a need for universal alignment
Engage with all stakeholders in countries
Define procedural and technical best practice
Agree standardised glossary across multiple stakeholders
17. How to achieve
alignment?
GOVERNMENT
Ministry responsible for
Civil Registration
Group of
SUPPLIERS of Civil
Registration requirements
INDUSTRY
PANEL
Establishing best practice
and agreeing terminology
Procurement
CRVS
multi-lateral
Stakeholders
Successful
CRVS approach
20. Summary
CRVS is at the foundation of everything we do
Without a strong CRVS the TRIP strategy
will not be achievable
It is up to us as the ICAO community to deliver
22. Thank you for listening
Contact Details:
Sophie Taylor
Sophie.taylor@uk.delarue.com
Editor's Notes
Civil registration is the act of recording and documenting of vital events in a person’s life (including birth, marriage, divorce, adoption and death)
It is a fundamental function of all governments
Within governments, civil registration systems are the responsibility of a number of ministries or departments, including ministries of health, ministries of interior, ministries of justice and national statistical offices
Civil registration contributes to public administration and governance by providing individuals with legal identity and civil status
Civil registration generates vital statistics information for use in public service planning*
Why is it important – legal identity and civil status
- government planning capability
Multiple stakeholders – what is it like today and how does it work – sporadic use of digitisations, sporadic, challenges today
Only 55 countries in the world have Vital Registration systems; others rely on sample surveys and household surveys to collate information
Despite an overall increase in global birth registration rates, more than 100 developing countries still do not have functioning and efficient registration systems:
Progress with death registration globally has been slower:
80% of deaths that occur outside health facilities are not counted in countries in most need of CRVS
Two-thirds of all deaths globally are not counted
Low income countries are most affected
42 out of the 46 Africa member states cannot report credible death registration data
Without this children don’t have an official identity so never have a passport or other services
Civil registration is the act of recording and documenting of vital events in a person’s life (including birth, marriage, divorce, adoption and death)
It is a fundamental function of all governments
Within governments, civil registration systems are the responsibility of a number of ministries or departments, including ministries of health, ministries of interior, ministries of justice and national statistical offices
Civil registration contributes to public administration and governance by providing individuals with legal identity and civil status
Civil registration generates vital statistics information for use in public service planning*
Why is it important – legal identity and civil status
- government planning capability
Multiple stakeholders – what is it like today and how does it work – sporadic use of digitisations, sporadic, challenges today
Only 55 countries in the world have Vital Registration systems; others rely on sample surveys and household surveys to collate information
Despite an overall increase in global birth registration rates, more than 100 developing countries still do not have functioning and efficient registration systems:
Progress with death registration globally has been slower:
80% of deaths that occur outside health facilities are not counted in countries in most need of CRVS
Two-thirds of all deaths globally are not counted
Low income countries are most affected
42 out of the 46 Africa member states cannot report credible death registration data
Without this children don’t have an official identity so never have a passport or other services
Immigration and Border control
Tax/social security
Healthcare
Education
Population registration/census
Electoral
Justice
Let’s put it into context....
The reality today...
If current levels persist, the number of unregistered children in eastern and southern Africa alone will rise to 55 million by 2050 (from 44million today) and will almost double in West and Central Africa.
This is only going to get harder to solve the longer we leave it.
100 years ago, one could argue that these unregistered people wouldn’t travel... But the pace of the world’s growing economies and access to disposable incomes now means that those born today will become wealthier, will have access to travel and so will cross borders. Many of the 57million children born in 2012 will expect to own travel documents and will obtain them through whatever means available.
Right now - Every 60 seconds, 52 aircrafts take off and 5700 passengers are boarding aircraft globally. How do we know who they are? Who is going to be crossing our borders?
What we are talking about here is ‘Evidence of Identity’
ICAO are already aware of this and have set up the Traveller Identification Programme – TRIP Strategy – to begin to support governments to improve their processes.
AS we all know, evidence of Identity is THE FOUNDATION of the whole piece.
This is a business approach to registering identities in Civil Registries.
One ensures that you set up a secure business process to notify an event has taken place, it is recorded, put into a secure register from where it can be pulled anonymously for data purposes.
This is the accepted approach already adopted across the world by 55 governments. The rest of the world need to address this.
We all agree on how important this is, but it’s not as simple as we’d like.
There are challenges:
The first - there are multiple stakeholders. We all know how complicated it can be to deal with multiple government agencies and juggle their conflicting prioritisations and needs.
There are international and national stakeholders – health, justice, interior, stats, education, immigration, aid community, UN agencies
While we may automatically think of secure passport issuance and border control as the main drivers, they are only one part of the bigger picture.
A strong CRVS solution MUST align to all parties who will contribute and use the data held.
The second challenge is a lack of best practice.
Despite 55 governments already managing CRVS systems, each country’s challenges and therefore requirements are very different. However, there are some basic principles where all can be aligned to ensure that it’s done properly.
There is no document 9303 equivalent for this.
Examples of this could be using fingerprint technology to capture biometrics of children – a technology that is not suitable as the fingerprints don’t stabilise until 14-15yrs
Another example could be the ambiguity of what is accepted as a verification process of an event such as a birth taking place. What documentation should be shown or submitted to the registrar? How should the evidence be stored? What processes should be in place to check the authenticity of these documents.... Is it enough for a parent to be there in person to register their new-born if no documentation exists?
Without these standards, national registration processes vary widely and will mean some national documents will be trusted over other countries’ documents. Commercial companies such as banks will not accept some forms of birth certification without wider validation, subjecting the individual to more complexity and cost to access their basic human right to an identity.
Another challenge is terminology.
One definition - CRVS, Vital Event Registration, Evidence of Identity, Breeder documents
Mobile registration
Interoperability - IT Systems or business processes or ministries working together...
Registration – notification of an event or the legal registation – SMS notification only, not registration as not able to verify the authenticity of the event.
Glossary of terms needed across all stakeholders (Govs, NGOs, UN agencies and private sector)
Another challenge is terminology.
One definition - CRVS, Vital Event Registration, Evidence of Identity, Breeder documents
Mobile registration
Interoperability - IT Systems or business processes or ministries working together...
Registration – notification of an event or the legal registation – SMS notification only, not registration as not able to verify the authenticity of the event.
Glossary of terms needed across all stakeholders (Govs, NGOs, UN agencies and private sector)
Another challenge is terminology.
One definition - CRVS, Vital Event Registration, Evidence of Identity, Breeder documents
Mobile registration
Interoperability - IT Systems or business processes or ministries working together...
Registration – notification of an event or the legal registation – SMS notification only, not registration as not able to verify the authenticity of the event.
Glossary of terms needed across all stakeholders (Govs, NGOs, UN agencies and private sector)
Another challenge is terminology.
One definition - CRVS, Vital Event Registration, Evidence of Identity, Breeder documents
Mobile registration
Interoperability - IT Systems or business processes or ministries working together...
Registration – notification of an event or the legal registation – SMS notification only, not registration as not able to verify the authenticity of the event.
Glossary of terms needed across all stakeholders (Govs, NGOs, UN agencies and private sector)
Another challenge is terminology.
One definition - CRVS, Vital Event Registration, Evidence of Identity, Breeder documents
Mobile registration
Interoperability - IT Systems or business processes or ministries working together...
Registration – notification of an event or the legal registation – SMS notification only, not registration as not able to verify the authenticity of the event.
Glossary of terms needed across all stakeholders (Govs, NGOs, UN agencies and private sector)
So we need universal alignment.
We need to engage with all stakeholders in countries, not just passport and border control authorities
We need procedural and technical best practice which will ensure that systems will work in the longterm
We need a standardised glossary to be created and shared across all the stakeholders so that we can speak the same language when idenitfying challenges and coming up with solutions.
So how can we achieve this alignment.
STANDARDS OF BEST PRACTICE REQUIRED – THE CUSTOMER NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE THEIR REQUIREMENTS IN UNVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD TERMINOLOGY
A technical working group with multiple stakeholders will help to identify the requirements and suitable technology for improvement of CRVS
Suppliers can then use these requirements specification to align their offering and comply to the recommended best practice – offering security and reassurance to the government
Once this model is up and running, the Government can have faith that the procurement with a compliant vendor will go smoothly and that all terminology and expectations are clear and aligned.
However – it is only possible with multiple stakeholder engagement and this is where I believe we as the ICAO community can support.
ICAO forms just 1 element of the stakeholder
We as the ICAO community can do something .....
We already have the values ....
ICAO has the right transferable skills from the wider identity management arena which are:
70yrs of experience
UN agency status
Technical know-how
International influencer
Multiple stakeholder engagement and alignment
Best recommendations and practices
ICAO’s goals and objectives:
There is a natural fit for ICAO to get involved and lead the technical standards discussion amongst the wider stakeholder community.
ICAO trip strategy
Best practice recommendations for:
Identity fraud
Appropriate system integration and trust issues
System design and document design
This is all about data; not just passports, but it forms the foundation for our ppts
I believe we are aligning to existing strategies... And by doing this we will
brings benefit to both the customer and the industry
-Confidence in the whole identity management lifecycle
Efficiency
Security
Legitimisation of the individual
Creation of a trusted issuing body for secure documents
Surely Without a strong CRVS – the trip strategy cannot be achievable – but we can’t do it alone – we need to engage with the regional initiatives to offer our expertise.
– achieves the trip strategy for evidence of Identity for Authentication of MRTDs.
It is up to us to deliver
I would just like to leave with some numbers ....
4.3 births per second, 255 births per minute
That is 3,825 during just this presentation
15,300 per hour, 367,200 per day
of which, currently, 146,880 will go unregistered unless we do something now.
